Young Girl

19- Shocks

Molly's POV-

"Come here Dora." I said sympathetically, pulling her over to sit beside me on the sofa. She curled up against my shoulder, tucking her knees up to her chest. She had tears trickling down her pale face, dripping off the end of her nose into her lap.

"Why doesn't he get it?" She sobbed gently, not hysterical but painfully sad and subdued, "What more does he want me to do?"

"Shh." I said gently, rocking her backwards and forwards slightly as she started to take shaky breaths, "Its alright, he'll come round. Just you wait."

"He said he wanted me to forget him." She said barely above a whisper, looking up and meeting my eyes. Her pale, grey irises were wide and magnified by tears, not full of laughter like normal, "That he was too old, poor and dangerous. Why doesn't he care that I love him?"

"He's always been like it," I explained thoughtfully, "Sees himself as unfit for everything and one. And he does love you back, you can tell in the way he looks at you. I know how it feels, I've been there. He won't be able to leave you out of his life for long."

"That's what I'm afraid of." She properly burst into tears, hiding in my shoulder, "He'd rather die than let me love him. He's walked to his death in the hope that I'll stop feeling this way and you know its true. Just all this he's making me go through, it leaves a hole in my stomach. That can't be filled...with anything...but having him back."

"I wonder." I whispered suddenly. A small thought had flickered into my mind, and as she spoke and her voice flooded with compassion, it grew, "Tonks, what's your patronus?"

"A jack rabbit." She answered slowly, "Why?" Her short breaths slowly stopped as she regained her composure, looking sideways at me the whole time.

"Cast it." I said bluntly, still deep in thought. Would it? Was what they had between them that pure? She looked at me like I was crazy, but after a few more seconds, slowly lowered her feet to the floor and took out her wand.

"Expecto Patronum." She said blankly, giving it a graceful flick. I wasn't in the least bit surprised when nothing happened and she turned back to look at me, "I physically can't do it Molly." She said tightly, letting her wand fall limp at her side.

"Try again." I said encouragingly, leaning forward slightly and giving her a wide smile, "But remember when he kissed you. How that sensation felt, the sparks where your skin touched. Now give it another go." She closed her eyes briefly and her hair turned a lighter shade of brown as her lips flickered into a small smile.

"Expecto Patronum." She whispered and, after a couple of nerve wracking seconds, a silvery mist started to slide from the end of her wand. It collected in the air before starting to make a form. I smiled widely, I knew straight away what it was.

Tonks's POV-

I gave a quiet gasp of surprise when I noticed that it wasn't my usual rabbit, and an audible squeak when my brain pieced together what it actually was. Standing before me, shaking itself out was a huge silver wolf. But not just any wolf, it was a lot larger and its eyes were perfectly human and incredibly intelligent. Werewolf.

"Remus." I gasped, taking a step back in alarm and falling onto the sofa. The room dimmed as my silvery wolf disappeared in a haze. Molly was quietly chuckling beside me, looking across with a wide smile on her face, "What is going on?" I asked nervously, stowing my wand back in my inside pocket, shaking the whole time.

"I think you know." She said gently and got up, quietly and meaningfully. I went to ask her what she was doing, but she shook her head, still walking across the room. Molly reached the old bookshelf, its contents ranging from A History of Magic to The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Carefully and irritatatingly mysterious, she picked out a book labelled Patroni for the Household Witch (uses and beliefs), by Athene Pernne.